CAMP PENDLETON -- Marine Corps officials are hastily preparing for a crush of media expected to cover the case of seven Marines and a Navy corpsman charged with killing an Iraqi civilian.

Lt. Col. Sean Gibson said Wednesday that $460,000 is being spent to renovate the top floor of a building to house as many as 150 reporters who would cover the case via closed-circuit TV and audio beamed in from a nearby courtroom.

Another $300,000 has been allocated to set up the wireless audio and visual feed from the courtroom to the media center. The courtroom and center are adjacent to the base airfield, Gibson said.

"It's a perfect location," Gibson said. "It's in a building that looks like a warehouse, and we're taking the top floor that used to be quarters for Marines and renovating it."

Camp Pendleton had been planning to renovate the facility, but not for a media center.

The need for one became apparent, however, when more than 100 reporters, photographers and TV camera operators descended on the base June 21 when the Marine Corps announced the men were being charged with premeditated murder.

Accused in the April 26 death of 52-year-old Hashim Ibrahim Awad and being held in the base brig are: Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins III, 22; Cpls. Marshall Magincalda, 23, and Trent D. Thomas, 24; Lance Cpls. Tyler Jackson, 22, Robert Pennington, 22 and Jerry Shumate, 20; Pfc. John Jodka III, 20; and Hospitalman 3rd Class Melson Bacos, 20.

The eight face the possibility of the death penalty if convicted of the premeditated murder charge, although no U.S. serviceman has been executed since 1961.

Gibson said the media center is about 200 yards away from the courtroom, where the next step in the military judicial process will take place.

That step, called an Article 32 hearing, will determine whether any or all of the men will move on to face trial. That point would be the first chance each would be able to enter a plea to the charges. All have said through their hired civilian attorneys or their family members that they are innocent.

"We're doing a basic interior renovation and making sure there is adequate power and that it provides a functional workspace," Gibson said.

In the courtroom, the Marine Corps is installing cameras for the closed-circuit hookup to the media center.

"The planning figure is for 150," Gibson said when asked how many media representatives the media center will accommodate.

The renovation is expected to be complete in early August, but is not a factor in scheduling those hearings. If the hearings commence before the work is done, Gibson said a pool of reporters will have access to the courtroom and must share what they hear with other reporters assigned to cover the proceedings.

When the media center is up and running and proceedings are under way, reporters will have Internet access and will be allowed to complete their work and file their stories before leaving the base. Reporters covering events at Camp Pendleton now are escorted off the base when their interviews are complete and must file their stories from their offices or a site off the base.

"We anticipating that reporters will put in some long days there," Gibson said.

It remained unclear Wednesday whether there would be eight separate Article 32 hearings or whether some will be combined.

In addition to the Hamdania case, another squad of Marines from Camp Pendleton is under investigation for the deaths of 24 civilians in Haditha, Iraq, in November.

No charges have been filed in that incident, but if any are lodged the Article 32 hearings for those Marines and any subsequent trials also would take place at Camp Pendleton.

Contact staff writer Mark Walker at (760) 740-3529 or mlwalker@nctimes.com.